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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Alright, let's start our second service. Let's get back to our seats and let's take our hymns. And let's sing the song, ground him with many crowns, hymn number 160, hymn 160. Ground him with many crowns. On the first. Ground him with many crowns. The lamb upon his throne. Hark how the hand, the bath, and sound. All music bought and sold. Awake my soul and sing. Of him who died for thee. Inhale him as thy matchless King. Through all eternity. Counting the Lord of love. Behold his hands and sigh. Rich wounds yet visible above. In beauty glorified. No angel in the sky. Can fully bear that sigh. Downward bends his wandering eye. At mystery so bright. Counting the Lord of life. Who triumphed o'er the grave. Who rose victorious to the strife. For those he came to save. His glory is now we sing. Who died and rose on high. Who died eternal life to bring. And lives that they may love. Round him the Lord of head. One with the Father known. One with the Spirit through him. Give from yonder glorious throne. To thee the endless praise. For thou bore us. Be thou, O Lord, true. And lest these adored and magnified. Pray, dear God, we thank you, Lord, for your blessing upon us and for blessings of our first service. I pray that you would also bless the second service, Lord, and help us have a successful service to this day. And I pray that you would also bless the fellowship later on and also the solving reception. We're asking all of these things. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. And take out your bulletin here. We'll go through some announcements real quickly. First, let's count up any unreported salvations for the bulletin. So starting in this section, are there any salvations to report? Anybody? Three? How about in this section, salvations to report? Seven? One? One? All right, one. How about over here, salvations to report? All right, well, 13 salvations to add. Did I miss anybody? All right, well, great job, everybody. And let me just go through a couple things because I know nobody ever pays attention during announcements. That's just kind of the way it is. And so I'll just go over the most pertinent things for the bulletin because I know the attention span is very short, right? So the two things to keep in mind for this week is we do have a so many marathon on Wednesday. Of course, we do have our normal church service. So so many will start at 10 a.m. We'll message in the group chat just as a reminder. But that will be on Wednesday, the day of valor. And then next Sunday is the Lord's Supper we will take. So we take that one time per year. So it is a special Sunday to be here. You don't want to miss it. And obviously we're coming up on Easter in two weeks. So we take it right around Easter. We're going to take it the week before this year. And so those are the most important things. And I think that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song. Oh, how sweet the youth's message Simple faith may claim Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same Still he loves to save the simple Heal the sick and lame Cheer the more, the still The tempest glory to his name Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name He who far the nearing Peter never needs thou fear In the game to bathe The psalmist of thy doubt will fear He who let the love disciple On his boots of rest Meets the seal with love A tender link upon his breast Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name Glory to his name On the third, he who meet The raging billows walk Upon the sea Still can pass our waters Step and pass ungodly He who wept and prayed And anguished in Gethsemane He who drinks with us Is scoffed of crumbling In our agony Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his mother last As the foal he walked Every man will submit them to apply So through all life's way He walketh ever near our side Soon again shall we be old In hangs and loathes and days But to still be this same Jesus Everybody on the chorus Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his name This time, let's take our dicing offering. All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his mother last As the foal he walked Every man will submit them to apply So through all life's way He walketh ever near our side Soon again shall we be old All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his mother last As the foal he walked Every man will submit them to apply So through all life's way He walketh ever near our side Soon again shall we be old All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his mother last As the foal he walked Every man will submit them to apply So through all life's way He walketh ever near our side Soon again shall we be old All may change, but Jesus Never glory to his mother last As the foal he walked Every man will submit them to apply So through all life's way He walketh ever near our side Soon again shall we be old Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife Nor his manservant, nor his maidservant Nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings And the noise of the trumpet And the mounted smoking And when the people saw it they removed and stood afar off And they said unto Moses Speak thou with us, and we will hear But let not God speak with us, lest we die And Moses said unto the people Fear not, for God has come to prove you And that his fear may be before your face, is that he sinned not And the people stood afar off And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was And the Lord said unto Moses Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven He shall not make with me gods of silver Neither shall he make unto you gods of gold And altar of earth thou shalt make unto me And thou shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings And thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen In all place where I record my name I will come unto thee And I will bless thee And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone For if thou lift up thy tool upon it Thou hast polluted it Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar That thy nakedness be not discovered thereon Bless the ring of God's word, let us pray For God in heaven, we thank you Lord for the stage you've given to us I pray Lord, you should please give us good weather for our soul in thee And our fellowship laid on And I pray Lord that you would also please bless our pastor And that we should go over the lotus day We love you and peace and we pray, amen At a young age, and so with young kids they do it And then hopefully if you're older you're not stealing on that level anymore But obviously just at a young age it can start And so this does apply to everyone Now go in your Bible to Proverbs 13 Proverbs chapter 13 Proverbs chapter 13, look at verse number 11 Proverbs 13 verse 11 And let me just show you very clearly why you never want to be someone who is stealing things Notice what it says in Proverbs 13 verse 11 Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished But he that gathereth by labor shall increase And the Bible says if you get your money by unjust means, by vanity The Bible says it's going to be diminished And what you're going to find is people that are thieves And people that are scam artists and con artists And especially in today's world with all these like email scams And you know fake phone calls, fake messages And yet you look at those people's lives and they never seem to get ahead in life They seem to be the same people that get the flat tires Have the medical expenses and all of those things You say why? Because God will not bless you if you are a thief The Bible says work hard to make your money But if you get money by vanity it shall be diminished You will not be successful being an unjust thief Turn your Bible to Genesis 31 Let me give you one story in the Bible that shows us this I mean isn't it true that people that win the lottery End up being bankrupt within two years like all the time? And that's not the same as stealing but it's wealth gotten by vanity for sure And it's like honestly the worst thing you could ever have happen to you pretty much is win the lottery I'm amazed how you know you always read these stories of these people And it's just like they get rich, they win a hundred million dollars in the lottery And then a lot of people in their family hate them And they're secretly trying to get the money and everything And then they end up becoming a drug addict or whatever It's like this always seems to take place with those people that win the lottery And honestly the worst thing you could do is just win the lottery and get rich You say why? Because wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished And what also tends to be diminished is not just your money But your morals and your ethics and your life is going to fall apart as a result Now it's better just to work hard and if God blesses you praise God But God will provide your needs if you are a person who's trying to do what's right You're a godly person Bible says in Genesis 31, let me give you a story in the Bible of stealing And show you how this man, he's dishonest with money and he never gets ahead Genesis 31 verse 3 And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock And said unto them, I see your father's countenance that is not toward me as before But the God of my father hath been with me and ye know that with all my power I have served your father And your father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times It's interesting when you're reading in the story Jacob is always blessed And then Laban can't seem to get it It's like why is it that Jacob, it doesn't even matter what he do with the cows It's like he always ends up winning You say why? Because Jacob was working hard and God blessed him And Laban on the other hand, he changed his wages ten times And Laban is ripping off Jacob and what's taking place And yet somehow Jacob is the one getting blessed and not Laban Now, and then it says here, But God suffered him not to hurt me Verse 8, If he said thus, The speckle shall be thy wages, then all the cattle bear speckle And if he said thus, The ring-streak shall be thy hire, then bear all the cattle ring-streak Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father and given them to me And if you read back to the story, it's a very interesting story Where it seems like whatever Jacob says, he's the one who ends up winning out Turn in your Bible, actually go to verse 17 And I'm showing you this because in the same chapter we can see what takes place If you steal from other people, what's going to take place to you? Because you reap what you sow So if you steal from other people, what's going to take place to you? Well, verse 17 Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives upon camels And he carried away all his cattle and all his goods which he had gotten The cattle of his getting which he had gotten in Padanerim For to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan And Laban went to Sheerah's sheep, and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's You reap what you sow, what goes around comes around And if you are a thief, don't be surprised if somebody takes from you I mean, you might steal a lot of money and live in a really nice house And you're rich, and then guess what? Somebody's going to steal it from you Your investment manager or whatever is going to make a bad investment Or steal it from you, you're going to lose it all That's just what's going to take place Why? Because God is not going to bless you if you're getting money in an unjust way And what we see is that Laban was ripping off Jacob financially And what ends up taking place? Then his daughter is actually stealing from him Now, turn your Bible to Exodus 21 And so let's look at the punishment for stealing What is the punishment? And when it comes to the punishment for stealing, it depends on what you stole And here's what you need to understand Our world today, our government today has various laws That doesn't mean that they're basing it on what the Bible says In fact, I don't think there's a single country that is really following the laws very much at all in the Bible And honestly, I think that if people have never read the Bible They're probably going to be surprised what the punishment is for stealing in the Word of God They'd be like, whoa, I've never heard of anybody doing that That would never work No, actually it worked really well If we'd actually stick to what God says, things would work And so it depends on what you're stealing But notice in verse 16 of Exodus 21 This is what we'd call kidnapping And kidnapping has the death penalty It doesn't matter whether you've sold that man or woman or child Or whether that man or woman or child is still in your possession If you kidnap, you get the death penalty the Bible says And I like that because in our modern day in countries You'd have a stronger punishment if you actually sold someone But I haven't done anything yet, I stole them But it's like, should I just get a couple years? No, you get the death penalty According to the Word of God for actually stealing someone Now notice what it says in Exodus 22, verse 1 And the Bible says this, that if you steal a human being You get the death penalty But that doesn't take place if you steal an animal You say, well, why is that? Because humans are better than animals There's not much of a comparison in God's eyes You steal a person, you get put to death And you say this and you kind of feel like, well, does that ever take place? But human trafficking is a major problem worldwide It is a massive problem that exists throughout the world And there are certain countries where it's a lot more prevalent than other countries But it's like human trafficking is a big issue And you know what would really help get rid of the problem? If you just put people to death that didn't Instead of just putting them in jail for 25 years No, just put them to death according to the Word of God Exodus 22, verse 1, it says that if you steal an ox It's oxen, it's five oxen for an ox And four sheep for a sheep if you're the one who actually stole it Now, why is it five for an ox and four for a sheep? My best guess would be because it takes more work to train an ox And since one was stolen and more time was invested You get a bigger one in return I could be wrong, it could come down to the lifespan or whatever But that is God's decision So if somebody steals your ox, you get five in return If somebody steals a sheep, you get four in return I mean, if you live during these times, you might be happy If somebody stole your sheep It's like, hi, I caught you It's like, I get four in return, right? You say, what happens if somebody steals my cat or my dog? I don't know, okay? Most people, they steal ox, they steal sheep Because they're valuable if you work on a farm It's not just like a house pet, but you're actually using it And so the Bible says this is what's going to take place for an ox or for a sheep And so we're seeing that this is the punishment Now what you do not see in Exodus 21 And you do not see in Exodus 22 Is the person who's the thief going to prison Does anybody see that in the Bible? And actually, in the book of Genesis You see Joseph going to prison in the system of Egypt Do you ever see God's system in the Bible instituting or promoting prison? No, you don't It's not in Exodus It's not in Leviticus It's not in God's law for his nation You say, well, how would we function if we didn't have prison? Well, those that committed a capital crime like murder, adultery, kidnapping, things such as that They're put to death Doesn't that just make sense, though? Instead of somebody staying in jail where tax dollars are paying for them When they're a criminal for a certain crime They get put to death And here's the thing If they steal something, they don't get put to death For an ox, it would be five For sheep, it would be four And so there's a payment you have to pay back You say, well, that's not going to work Because if they stole, they might not have money They can't pay it back Here's how it works That means they sell their selves into slavery to pay it off God's system actually works And I get it Here's the thing We live in a world where we're not even close to doing what the Bible says And yeah, you know what? It would probably be a shock to the system If a country just immediately adopted all the laws of the Bible And this is just theoretical Because it's never going to happen until the millennial reign of Christ But, yeah, pretty much everything countries are doing Yeah, it's not what the Bible says There is no prison system that you're going to find instituted by God in the Bible And let me explain to you why prison is not really fair, okay? Number one, if somebody commits a capital crime and deserves the death penalty It's not fair to us when that person can be back out on the street and commit the same crime You have people that are pedophiles and rapists and kidnappers and murderers And then they come back on the streets ten years later It's like, no, I mean, those people committed a capital crime They deserve death according to the Bible But here's the thing If somebody steals something from a store And they don't do any violence, they just steal something Here's the thing about this If that person's an 18-year-old kid and they do something stupid when they're young And now they have that as permanent on their record And they cannot get hired into jobs It's almost forcing them to steal again That's what's going to take place because they're not going to get hired Look, obviously stealing at all is wrong But you are not going to see prison found in the Bible And what I would say to you is What's more fearful than going to jail Would probably be becoming a servant for years to pay off your debt That would probably scare an 18-year-old away from actually doing something like that But regardless of what you think, this is what God says There is no prison system found in the Word of God Now, go in your Bible to Matthew 18 Let me show you an example of basically becoming a servant as a result of owing a debt And this is something the Word of God teaches I'll show it to you in the New Testament And here's the thing Obviously when we're reading our Bibles The book of Exodus and the book of Leviticus Are not the most exciting parts to the Bible Now, there's definitely parts to those books that Man, I love them, they're very interesting You know, obviously the first half of Exodus is very entertaining Then you start getting to all the laws And it's very easy to kind of just zone out And not pay attention to those things But the reason why part of it is kind of tough reading And not the most exciting Is because God is giving a very detailed legal system For His nation And it would have been very important for them And He gives very detailed situations If this takes place, this is what happens If this takes place, this is what happens So He gives very detailed and structured rules So they would understand how to work as a society And the thing is, you might feel like there's a lot of rules in the Bible But if you were to go to any country in the world The law book is far greater Than just these few books found in the Old Testament That give the laws of God Matthew 18 verse 21 And His wife and children And all that He had and payment to be made And so the Bible's giving this example Of basically being sold into being a servant Jesus gives this as an example Because culturally this is something that was actually done And quite honestly, the Bible teaches this Because if you end up getting a big debt And you can't pay it off How is it fair that somebody has to pay your debt? And this takes place all the time Where people end up declaring bankruptcy In the U.S. and then they can't pay it off You say, what takes place? Well, nothing, but the tax dollars of Americans Are the ones paying for that person It's like, well, that's not really a just system Because they're not paying off their own debt But see, God's system actually works If it would actually be applied Now turn your Bible to Ephesians 6 Let me give you some examples of this in the Bible Of modern day applications of this idea Of thou shalt not steal Because here's the thing Maybe you stole something from a store When you were a kid or something But I don't think that the average adult in here After this sermon is going to go to 7-Eleven And just take whatever they want And walk out and not pay I don't think that you're going to walk into a restaurant And eat the food And then just walk out and not pay for it I doubt that anyone in our church is going to do that If you are, let me know so I can kick you out of church For being a thief, okay? Because no, if you're doing that, you're not welcome at our church, okay? I don't think there's anybody at our church that does that But that doesn't mean that the commandment doesn't apply to us at all Obviously, you know, these commandments that are very basic I mean, as I said, it's very much just basic for a kid at a young age They take what belongs to somebody else, right? And so here's the thing Obviously, we grow out of that to some degree But this commandment still does apply to our lives even as adults One application is in regards to work Where you can actually steal at work And I'm not saying literally you steal the computer from the job What I'm saying is I work jobs where you'd have a clock in and clock out And ours was an automated system where you'd clock in But what I would often see with other coworkers is the last hour of work was just gossip It's like, well, why don't you clock out before you start gossiping? But as they're spending the last hour just gossiping to other people You know what's taking place? The company is paying them for doing nothing That is dishonest It's lying and it is also stealing money from that company Because you did not work for it You did not earn it The Bible says in Ephesians 6 verse 5 Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling In singleness of your heart as unto Christ Not with I service as men-pleasers But as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart When it's saying not with I service as men-pleasers What it's saying is you work hard in order to please man Meaning if somebody is watching you, you're working really hard If nobody's watching you, you just do whatever you want Right? And it's very common if you work at a company when the boss is around, people work harder When the boss is not around, when the cat's away, the mice will play Right? I worked a job where the last couple of years Or my first couple of years in the company My one head boss was in his last couple of years before he retired But he's kind of like in semi-retirement over those last few years And he kind of had a feud with the company and everything But basically, you never really knew what days he's going to show up to work And when he did show up, you never knew what time he's going to show up And honestly, he was too valuable to the company to get rid of But basically, you know, number one, what he was doing was dishonest and wrong But here's the thing about this I would notice that when he was around, people worked very hard When he was not around, people didn't work Right? The way that our office worked, we had two sections We had the DB and the DC And DB is defined benefit, DC is defined contribution But to make it simple, the DB section just crunches numbers on Microsoft Excel all day So this is the side that I was on This is what I was paid for I never talked to people on the phone or anything It's just kind of like I was given numbers And I just came up with equations, calculated stuff, double checked stuff That is what the job is basically for the DB side Now on the DC side, because there's only like about five people or six people that work on the DB side On the DC side, because it's a big office, there's like 30 people that work there There's a lot of people And you know, honestly, I don't really know everything that they did I know that they're on the phone a lot and just organizing stuff and everything like that But it's not dealing with crunching numbers or anything like that But here's the thing about this My job, I was never supposed to be on the phone except like a very, very rare occasion Okay? If there's a complicated formula that I've got to talk to someone trying to figure something out from another company Where something's confusing in the writing or whatever But here's the thing When the boss was gone, I would have my phone ring a lot You say, why is that? Because nobody's working on that side and then the call gets bounced to our side And they're asking stuff and I'm like, I have no idea, let me write that down Let me find someone who can help you And I'm looking around, nobody's working It's like, what are they doing? It's like, well, because the boss is gone So when the boss is gone, they're just taking smoke breaks, taking long lunch breaks and things such as that And there could be this tendency that if nobody's watching us, just do whatever you want Why is that foolish though as a Christian? Because of the fact we're not working for man, we're working for God The Bible says, with good will doing service as the Lord and not to men Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord Whether he be bond or free And I believe that as a Christian, if you are going to make your money by being dishonest And clocking in, like lying on your time cards or whatever It's like, God's going to take that money out of you one way or another You say, why? Because you're being dishonest and wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, the Bible says Go to Malachi 3 So one application we can take away is in terms of at the office When you work a job, we need to be honest and not steal from the company But another application is with tithing Now look, I very rarely talk about money So if you're here and you're relatively new, I like never talk about money But this is a real application that the Bible speaks about, about stealing And this one's actually far more serious Because if you don't tithe, you're not stealing from me You're stealing from God, the Bible says And so I want you to end, you know, in case, because I'm not preaching a whole sermon on this But to help you understand, if you look up tithing in the Bible What tithing is referring to is the tenth or ten percent is what the Bible says What it's referring to is ten percent of your increase Ten percent of what you make, you are supposed to give back to God Now here's the thing, a lot of people say, wow, tithing was an Old Testament thing It's not around anymore Number one, tithing existed before the Mosaic law It is in the book of Genesis Now it's a lot easier for us to see today because it's very organized We meet in a church and you bring your tithe to church Whereas in the Old Testament, you know, there's kind of different places they met and things like that But you see them tithing in the book of Jacob You go all the way back to Abraham and he's paying tithes So here's the thing, tithing is not linked to the Mosaic law And so for those that would say, well, this is something that's done away in Christ Well, number one, it existed before the Mosaic law Number two, the things that are done away are things that symbolize Jesus Christ So for example, when it comes to the clean animals versus unclean, various ceremonial laws When it comes to the Sabbath day, we enter into that rest when we get saved So those are things that are done away Because their purpose was to point to Jesus Christ We do not, we're going to take the Lord's Supper next week We are not going to kill a lamb and eat it As part of the Lord's Supper Now maybe after the Lord's Supper we'll kill a lamb and eat it You know, because I love eating meat But here's the thing, that's not part of the Lord's Supper You say, why? Because that pictured Jesus Christ and the Lamb of God has already been killed for us Here's the thing though The purpose of the tithe was not as something as a picture of Jesus Christ The purpose of the tithe is actually to fund the work of God So here's the thing In the Old Testament, to get things done you need money In the New Testament, what do we need to get things done? You need money Right? And look, we're not a church that asks for money on a regular basis It's not something I talk about a lot And we don't have a problem at a church I'm just talking about it because it applies to this sermon But yeah, you know, this building didn't just magically build itself It takes money We do a lot of so many events and we pay for food and those things are great But you know, it costs money for that food It costs money for the invitations The things of God do cost money You say, well how do we fund those things? Where do we get that money from? From the tithes and offerings of all of us From the money that we contribute Now we're blessed as a church because we do have some online donors That will send us money that have given us the ability to go above and beyond And that's a large reason why we've been able to have this building And able to save up money and things like that But we're able to do things as a result of the tithes that come in And so the system that God instituted is giving 10% of your increase And here's what it says in Malachi 3 verse 7 Even from the days of your father's year gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings And what the Bible says here is You're not robbing man, but you're actually robbing God When you don't give your tithe to the local church that you attend You say, why? Because of the fact God requires 10% And in the Old Testament when they gave their 10% And of course they had a lot of various animal offerings that they would have Which is something I wouldn't say that applies today I would say if you want to give above and beyond It's completely up to you But what God asks of you is 10% of your increase That's what he says And what is often preached and is true Is that you can live better off of 90% Than you can off of 100% And so God says 10% is what I require of you Verse 9, Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation Bringing all the tithes into the storehouse Why? That there may be meat in mine house That there might be chairs in mine house That there might be a microwave in mine house That there might be a building that you can build Right? And what the Bible is saying is This is used to fund the work of God And he says, improve me now herewith Meaning test me, sayeth the Lord of hosts If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing That there shall not be room enough to receive it Now look, obviously this is a topic that people can take to too big of extremes I'm not a prosperity preacher that says You know what? You sow your seed of this much money And God's going to give you tenfold And you're going to have an eight room house And a brand new car and all those things No, but there is an in-between position Where if you just do what God says, God will bless you And you know, obeying all of God's commandments If we want God's blessing But specifically here referring to our tithe And you know what? God will bless you because you obeyed And he will financially provide your needs Now what gets tricky is Our needs and our wants are not the same thing And every single one of us has a lot of wants That is not really a need I mean, I'm sure everybody in this room If you're honest, would you rather have less money or more money You're going to say more money, right? Nobody's going to wish that they had less Let's just be honest, okay? Well, here's the thing about this God will provide our needs But we have to realize what we actually need Or what we need is not necessarily the same thing as what we want And there might be a lot of things that we're not able to have Look, if God blesses you And you make a lot of money And you're successful And you have the money to buy stuff And you're still giving your 10% to God And you have the money to buy extra stuff Then praise God that God has blessed you And don't be envious at anybody else at church Who might have more than you But if not, I do know that God is going to provide your needs If God cares about the sparrow He cares about you as the Bible says, right? And I want you to notice what he says here in verse 11 It's an interesting verse He says, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes And he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground Neither shall your vine cast your fruit Before the time of the field, saith the Lord of hosts Now, he's kind of speaking to an agricultural world And I'm by no means a farmer I'm not an expert at planting fruits and vegetables And things like that So I'm sure other people could articulate this better But he's saying He shall not destroy the fruits of your ground There's many ways that your fruits and your vegetables Can be destroyed that you're trying to grow I mean, I know that at our house that we had My parents were really excited We had a big backyard We put up a garden They had been excited for years about this And then we realized, you know what? There's just far too many animals in the area And the animals just come in And they just destroy up all the fruits and vegetables And you say, well, just have an electric fence You know, somehow they find a way through that, it seems like It doesn't necessarily work as easily as it should And so here's the thing, though I mean, if you're under the blessing of God God has the ability, though That the fruits of the ground don't get destroyed by a deer Or a caribou, or whatever Or by a flood Or by some sort of fluke occurrence God has the ability to make it last Think about the Hebrews That their clothes and their shoes did not get old in the wilderness They're traveling year after year after year And yet their shoes are just lasting, right? He also says, in that verse, he says Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field The way I read this is kind of like when you're growing fruits and vegetables Sometimes they grow perfectly And sometimes they get cast early Where basically they're not good So the way I think of it is if you buy a bag of grapes I mean, there's always grapes there that are just not good They just didn't become fully ripe for whatever reason And God's saying to you, I have the ability to bless what you're growing or curse it If you have animals, I have the ability to allow them to be healthy and strong And you can sell them for a good amount I also have the ability to give them a disease where they would just die And you would lose out on that money What the Bible's saying is, hey, you know what? Honor God with the 10%, give your tithe And then God can bless you and provide your needs Not necessarily your wants Go to your Bible to 2 Thessalonians 3 2 Thessalonians 3 Now here's the thing God says 10% and people can get mad about this But I want you to realize that at a lot of churches They're going to ask for a lot more than 10% I'm kind of amazed here in the Philippines Because in the U.S., Baptist churches are not really generally known To really be pushy to get a lot of money But here in the Philippines, the first fruits offering is very common Where basically they want your first month's salary All of your money in January And it's like, that is a lot of money I mean, that's crazy to me I mean, when I first heard that, I was like, wait, what? Never heard anything like that I mean, you're giving your whole month's salary away You're basically giving 20% of your money during the year You're pretty much doubling the amount that you're giving It's ridiculous It's not what the Bible teaches So what God requires is 10% He doesn't require more than that The Bible says 10% is what he requires to be obedient to what he says So one example of stealing might be being dishonest at work Clocking in at the wrong time Or being dishonest or whatever in that way Another thing is with our tithes Where it's even worse because you could be robbing from God Another example of stealing is actually refusing to work And I'm going to show this to you That the Bible teaches this is actually stealing And I'm going to explain why this is stealing Now, when I'm saying refusing to work I'm not saying someone that was born blind And has major things that would prevent them from working That's not what I'm referring to I'm not referring to somebody gets older and they retire Or they lose their health or whatever What I'm referring to is young people that have the ability to work But they refuse to work Okay, so why is that stealing? Well, notice what it says in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ That you withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly And not after the tradition which he received of us For yourselves know how you ought to follow us For we behave not ourselves disorderly among you Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught But wrought with labor and travail, night and day That we might not be chargeable to any of you Not because we have not power But to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us For even when we were with you This we commanded you that if any would not work Neither should eat The Bible does not say if you cannot work It says you would not, you will not, you choose You say, I'm not going to work Well, the Bible says, okay, then you don't deserve to eat any food Now obviously if you're part of a family It's like my wife stays home and raises the kids And I'm the provider for our family And obviously we're in it together as a family But what the Bible's saying is if you're someone That is refusing to work and living off other people Because you refuse to work It's like actually you don't deserve to eat Now I understand that here in the Philippines There are a lot of people that are homeless And on the streets And they're not all drug addicts They're not all drunks They're not all bad people Whereas I would say in the United States And I have people that I think are going to agree with me They're pretty much all a bunch of drug addicts and drunks That are there panhandling on the side of the road in the U.S. But here's the thing about this In the Philippines I realize there are some people That are down on their luck And you know what? It's like obviously it's not as rich of a country In the U.S. the government will pay you to not work So it's kind of hard to be homeless unless you really want to Right? But there are also a lot of people here in the Philippines as well That refuse to work It's not like every single person asking for money Actually just has no chance No, there's a lot of people that are a bunch of con artists Just lying and trying to steal And I've seen it here in the Philippines Because I know plenty of examples of people That are just asking for money And they got a story And then later on they've got a different story Like a month later and they're asking for money It's like, what? It's like this is the story I heard But then they change their story They go on to something else and it's the same person It's like what are they doing? They're lying! And they're stealing! Right? Now I remember when I was, you know First went to college I was very naive about the homeless And this idea of people ripping you off Because I grew up in a small town in West Virginia And it's not a warm state So in a small town In a cold city For part of the year I don't remember ever seeing a homeless person growing up I'm not saying there was none But I come from a small town West Virginia's not a big state It's not San Francisco or anything like that So I never had any experience with anyone who's homeless And I remember going to college And I remember just kind of like my first week Or my first couple weeks there There's somebody that was asking me for money And he's homeless He looked like he was a mess And he lived on the streets and everything And I felt compassion in my heart And I gave that man $20 I felt really bad and I was thinking Man, it's like I've got a place to stay I've got food and clothing And so I gave him money And I remember And I think God allowed me to see this Because I went to my class It was like about an hour and a half later I saw that same guy With a bottle of booze in his hand Just as drunk as could be And I realized I actually helped that guy get drunk Because I gave him the money that he used for alcohol And I realized at that time Okay, I cannot just give money To everybody who asked Because there's going to be a lot of people that are just bad people Now a few years later There's someone else who was homeless as well And they were asking for money And at that point I was like I'm not going to give money to someone I don't know But what I did is I gave them a box of food I said, hey, my apartment's five minutes away I'll come back down I'll give you some food Some soup and various things Because I didn't want to risk the fact that he's going to use this money To buy drugs and alcohol And he's like, man, I'm desperate I just want something to eat I was gone for five minutes And I'm like, where is he? And then I was like Should I take the box back? And I just left it there I came back the next day And all the food was still in the box Hadn't taken anything And it's like, why was he asking for money? Obviously for drugs and alcohol Because here's what takes place in the US It's like, you'll get a food stamp To buy food But there's certain things that the government will not pay for So if you want to get alcohol There's different hardworking people That give you their money So there's a lot of people that are homeless That are just con artists Now, here's the thing, in West Virginia We didn't have a major problem with it Because it's not a warm state But then we moved to Sacramento, California And California It's like, no offense To everyone who loves California Owe so much I still think it's the worst state in the US I'm not a fan I like the small town More conservative areas And in California It's an epidemic of homeless people Just all over the place Everywhere I mean, there's companies where you want to go inside the door And there's a homeless person That you gotta wake up So you can actually open up the door to go inside We'd see homeless people all the time Now, where we lived Was not a really nice area I mean, it was kind of a poor area And so there's a lot of drug use And one example is There was one day that I think it was in the morning we woke up And there was a bunch of police outside With guns pointed at our neighbor's house And so we weren't allowed out So we had to stay inside and everything So we didn't live in the nicest area There was a time when we had first moved in Where I would be gone And then random people would show up at the house Obviously looking for drugs When I started mowing the grass In a sink outside and stuff Where obviously the person was a drug dealer That lived there before So there's a lot of homeless people Right near our area There's like the homeless camp Because they would kind of camp out together And at least where we were, they would go on shifts Where basically you're the homeless person for eight hours And then you go back And a new person comes in and everything So I knew these homeless people Because I would see them, they were kind of near my house And there was this guy Who was standing on the corner Would be standing with a cane and sunglasses And acting blind But the man was not blind He pretended to be blind To make money And inside my head I was like I want to make that man blind Right, you're going to ask for money On the side of the street And pretend to be blind And look, you know I have no idea what happened to that person And honestly I wouldn't be surprised with someone like that If God actually took away their sight As a punishment for doing something so wicked But my point is this That there are people that are just going to rip you off And what they're doing is they're stealing They're being dishonest, they're lying And they're stealing from people that have compassion in their heart Right But here's the proof that they're stealing Because what it says in verse number 11 Of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 It says, for we hear that there is so much work Which walk among you disorderly Not at all, but our busy bodies Now them that are such we command and exhort By our Lord Jesus Christ That with quietness they work and eat Their own bread What is he stating? Oh, you've been eating bread But it's not your own bread What does that mean? It means they're stealing from other people It means other people are working And they're giving you food What is that? It's called being a thief It's called stealing So you go in your Bible to Jude chapter 1 We'll look at a few more places Jude chapter 1 Jude chapter 1 Now look, I wish that this was not a problem that existed But exists all over the world And you know, one place it can't exist is inside the local church You say, why? Because of the fact At church, charity believeth all things You want to give people the benefit of the doubt You want to give people a chance You've got compassion in your heart Especially your fellow church members And sometimes it can be taken advantage of You know, my friend in the U.S. He's a pastor, Pastor Jared Pizarnsky Had this story that he told us And this is pretty crazy But he told us this when we were living in Sacramento Because he was going to Verity Baptist as well That he went to a church And all the men after the service Are standing around talking about the Bible And this guy walks up And he's like Everyone's like, are you alright? Because obviously he's trying to get attention He's like, yeah, I've got This medical condition I found out about But it's costly to find out How serious it is And I don't have the money To go to the appointment And then all of a sudden He didn't say anything It's kind of awkward What do you say at a moment like that? And Pastor Pizarnsky's got compassion in his heart And he talked to the guy later on And said, hey, and he wrote him a check If I remember correctly For $400 Because that's what it cost So then of course the next church service He's kind of curious what happened And he's like, hey, are you doing alright? What did the doctor say? The guy's like, wait, what? He's like, remember, you had that condition But the guy had already cashed the check And so he didn't say anything to the pastor Because he's like, well, you know what? I'm just going to forgive my brother in Christ Or whatever, but it's like That guy's just a thief That's a lot of money, $400 And look, it's a lot of money in the US as well It's not like people have just $400 Laying around to just give up But you say, what is that called? It's called just stealing, right? And so this can take place In many different shapes and forms And in many different places Lastly, I want to look at con artists And con artists, as I was talking about earlier With scams such as Email scams And text message scams I mean, there's all kinds In today's world I mean, it kind of makes you say, man Everyone loves the cell phones But I wish we could go back 100 years ago Where I didn't have to worry about Whoops, I accidentally clicked on a link And they've taken all of my money But that sort of stuff Actually exists in 2025 I mean, there's scam artists everywhere That are out there And here's what the Bible says in Jude 1 Verse 10 But these speak evil of those things Which they know not But what they know naturally is brute beasts And those things, they corrupt themselves Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain And ran greedily after the error of Balaam For reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Corey Balaam for reward, and what it's basically doing Is giving you three different types of reprobates And what Balaam is representing Is the one that is covetous He's after money And if you read back that story with Balaam Like he was a bad guy That was willing to do stuff for the sake of money But he's a very religious person Go in your Bible to Ephesians 4 Ephesians 4 Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians 4 Ephesians 4 I mean I remember Way back when these email scams started They weren't as advanced And so kind of It seemed like, well people aren't going to fall for this Because you've got to just Write in your credit card information Or all this stuff It's like, who would do this? The thing is, they've gotten a lot more advanced And now I hear that Even if you don't click on anything In the email Just simply clicking on some emails They can access your information It's like, that's crazy Just opening up a text message Without even clicking at the content within It's like, people can take stuff from you I mean it's like a regular thing in a group chat Marlon just sent something a couple days ago Where every few months Like hey there's this new scam There's this, there's this, there's this They're all over the place in 2025 Now I'm not going to say that everybody A scam artist is a reprobator Or a bad person, but I definitely believe a lot of them are It's like they have no morality Just to steal from somebody's pocket Right? And it happens all of the time In today's world It's all over the place Now there's these YouTube channels Exposing these scam artists Where basically The person pretends to get scammed And then they crack into the other person's computer And the guy gets in trouble Whatever and everything I think a lot of those people that are running those scam operations Are probably just bad people With no morality, no conscience And they don't feel bad about ripping people off Kind of the stigma from these scam things Going back 20 years ago Was that people would take advantage of Elderly people that are not familiar With technology And I just think to myself Who would steal from an old man Or an old woman? That's crazy And all stealing is wrong But stealing from an old man Or an old woman And just taking advantage of them Because they lived in a day where you didn't have to Worry about this sort of garbage And when people do that A lot of those people are like Balaam They are bad people Ephesians 4 verse 28 The Bible says this Let him that stole steal no more But rather let him labor Working with his hands the thing which is good Let him that stole steal no more But rather let him labor Working with his hands the thing which is good That he may have to give to him that needeth One example you can see In Ephesians 4 And it was similar in 2 Thessalonians 3 Where you work and eat your own bread That even a believer could be someone who is a thief But what the Bible is showing you is A person can change Now obviously if they are a reprobate If they are a child of the devil They are not going to change One example you can think of in the Bible Of someone who was a thief That actually made a change Is you think of the two thieves on the cross So what the Bible says when you read that story Is that you have Jesus And then he is crucified between two thieves And of course that one thief Is mocking Jesus and making fun of him at the beginning And then later on ends up believing on Christ Right? And so it is possible for someone To be a thief and do a lot of unjust things And not be a bad person Because he is an unsafe person And ends up getting saved It is even possible for saved people to do bad things But I promise you a lot of people That are just willing to steal and take from other people They are bad people You say why? Because you would feel guilty It is one thing if you stole from a company Obviously stealing from a company Is wrong as well But stealing from an individual Stealing something that belongs to them And not caring about what happens to them It is like man That is like a whole other level Of depravity than just stealing from a company And obviously all stealing is wrong But what I would say to all of us This applies even if we are older But also if you are raising young kids This is something you need to teach your kids At a young age You say why? Look I think my kids are great kids But my kids are young And one of the most natural things For a child that is a couple years old If they see a toy Or a piece of candy that they want And they don't have I would say there is probably half the arguments Between little kids in this church Just stealing a toy Or stealing a piece of food that belongs to another one And they get mad about it All because they see something they want It is like they take it So this is something we need to teach kids At a young age Because if it becomes a natural thing to them It is going to be very easy for them To basically be like that when they get older What is the problem with that? God is not going to bless you The Bible says wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished All of us need to learn to work hard And provide our own needs Let's close in a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today And I ask you to help us to apply this sermon to our lives God, help us to obviously Not just outright steal And do something that would land us in prison Or something such as that God Help us also not to just be dishonest And steal in other means That maybe we feel we can get away with God Help us to realize that if we are going to be blessed in this life We need to obey your commandments This one included God In order to have your blessing God We pray these things in Jesus name, amen Alright, for our last song Let's turn our hymns to hymn number 125 Let's sing the song, the solid rock Hymn number 125, the solid rock On the first, everybody sing My hope is built on nothing less I dare not trust But I will be with you I dare not trust But holding lean on Jesus' name On Christ the solid rock I stand On other ground is sinking sand On other ground is sinking sand When darkness veils I rest on his unchanging grace My anchor holds within the veil On Christ the solid rock I stand On other ground is sinking sand On other ground is sinking sand On other ground is sinking sand On the third Is on his covenant, his blood Support me in the whelming blood When all around my soul gives way He then is all my hope and state On Christ the solid rock I stand On other ground is sinking sand On other ground is sinking for the last When he shall come with Dress in his righteous All as we can be for the throne On Christ the solid rock I stand On other ground is sinking sand On other ground is sinking sand Happy birthday to you One more time Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, happy birthday Happy birthday to you I would, Pastor, I would like to ask your family to come up front so that we'll have a church member